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Life and Society in the Post Rise World
CITIES OF LIGHT Deep within the unending darkness of the Nyx and Argentum, Cities of Light have been constructed that function as both enormous habitats and industrial/manufacturing centers. Immense farms and greenhouses, lit by banks of thousands of Tesla lamp growing lights surround the cities of light to provide staple crops that keep each city's residents alive. Some crops cannot be effectively grown under artificial lights, such as citrus fruit, and thus survival of the cities of Light relies on trade with the Aureus. The cities of light are connected by a high-speed rail system called the Night Train Lines, that transport goods and personnel quickly and efficiently between the cities of light, towns and outposts in the darkness. The Night Train tracks are constructed on elevated piers above the flooded former glories of places like New York City. Every city of light also features an aeroplex, a towering spire with multiple docks for airships that operate below the Æster floor. The aeroplex is also an anchor point for massive cables running up to the platforms within the Æster. These large floating platforms suspended by the Draw were built to service the æsterships that roam altitudes above 10,000 feet. The æster platforms are supplied by heavy-capacity cable elevators called skyhooks, connected to the aeroplex below. These cables also allow cable-crawling elevators to transit vertically, carrying cargo, passengers, and even carrying whole æsterships in and out of the Æster. The cables themselves act as a power conduit, channeling the flow of current from the highly charged Æster, powering the millions of Tesla lamps in the city of light below. THE BRITISH EMPIRE & BRITISH AMERICA The British Empire stands as one of the final remaining colossi of empires, spanning the entire globe with its land holdings. The capital now lies in New London (formerly Darwin), in the sun-warmed Aurean lands of Australia. In the United States, the first five years of the Rise saw the destruction of both the Union and the Confederacy. Caught in the teeth of the Civil War when the Rise began in 1862, neither government was in any way prepared to deal with the tragedies wrought by rising waters, encroaching darkness and the subsequent famines and disease that plagued the tide of refugees fleeing the northern latitudes. As the leadership of the U.S. realized the magnitude of what was happening, they soon realized that they, like so many other nations, would soon fall victim to the Æster if they tried to stand alone, so the bulk of North America rejoined the British Empire and is now considered British America. Only two exceptions resisted rejoining the British Empire. The first is the Former Confederacy, which occupies lands east of the Great Mississippi Bay and south of the Tennessee and South Carolina border. The former Confederate States chose to go their own way and organized into a loosely affiliated chain of city-states. Law and order only exists to the distance of a canon shot from the walls of each remaining Confederate city-state. The second is the Republic of California, the last remnant of the former Union, which now extends as far north as Fort Colville in the North and as far south as Mazatlan in western Mexico. .